This is the heir. Come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours

 Then they came again to Jerusalem.  And as He was walking in the temple, the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders came to Him.  And they said to Him, "By what authority are You doing these things?  And who gave You this authority to do these things?"  But Jesus answered and said to them, "I also will ask you one question; then answer Me, and I will tell you by what authority I do these things.  The baptism of John -- was it from heaven or from men?  Answer Me."  And they reasoned among themselves, saying, "If we say, 'From heaven,' He will say, 'Why then did you not believe him?'  But if we say, 'From men'" -- they feared the people, for all counted John to have been a prophet indeed.  So they answered and said to Jesus, "We do not know."  And Jesus answered and said to them, "Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things."

Then He began to speak to them in parables:  "A man planted a vineyard and set a hedge around it, dug a place for the wine vat and built a tower.  And he leased it to vinedressers and went into a far country.  Now at vintage-time he sent a servant to the vinedressers, that he might receive some of the fruit of the vineyard from the vinedressers.  And they took him and beat him and sent him away empty-handed.  Again he sent them another servant, and at him they threw stones, wounded him in the head, and sent him away shamefully treated.  And again he sent another, and him they killed; and many others, beating some and killing some.  Therefore still having one son, his beloved, he also sent him to them last, saying, 'They will respect my son.'  But those vinedressers said among themselves, 'This is the heir.  Come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.'  So they took him and killed him and cast him out of the vineyard.  Therefore what will the owner of the vineyard do?  He will come and destroy the vinedressers, and give the vineyard to others.  Have you not even read this Scripture:

'The stone which the builders rejected
Has become the chief cornerstone.
This was the LORD's doing,
And it is marvelous in our eyes'?"

And they sought to lay hands on Him, but feared the multitude, for they knew He had spoken the parable against them.  So they left Him and went away.

- Mark 11:27-12:12

In yesterday's reading, we read that the next day after Jesus' Triumphal Entry, when they had come out from Bethany, Jesus was hungry.  And seeing from afar a fig tree having leaves, He went to see if perhaps He would find something on it.   When He came to it, He found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs.  In response Jesus said to it, "Let no one eat fruit from you ever again."  And His disciples heard it.  So they came to Jerusalem.  Then Jesus went into the temple and began to drive out those who bought and sold in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves.  And He would not allow anyone to carry wares through the temple.  Then He taught, saying to them, "Is it not written, 'My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations'?  But you have made it a 'den of thieves.'"  And the scribes and chief priests heard it and sought how they might destroy Him; for they feared Him, because all the people were astonished at His teaching.  When evening had come, He went out of the city.    Now in the morning, as they passed by, they saw the fig tree dried up from the roots.  And Peter, remembering, said to Him, "Rabbi, look!  The fig tree which You cursed has withered away."  So Jesus answered and said to them, "Have faith in God.  For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, 'Be removed and be cast into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says.  Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you will receive them, and you will have them.  And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, that your Father in heaven may also forgive yo your trespasses.  But if you do not forgive, neither will your father in heaven forgiven your trespasses."

 Then they came again to Jerusalem.  And as He was walking in the temple, the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders came to Him.  Here, my study bible tells us:  "In the opinion of the official leaders of Israel, Jesus has trespassed on their territory.  If He is allowed to remain, they are totally discredited.  The stage is set after the cleansing of the temple [see yesterday's reading]:  they must destroy Him."

 And they said to Him, "By what authority are You doing these things?  And who gave You this authority to do these things?"  But Jesus answered and said to them, "I also will ask you one question; then answer Me, and I will tell you by what authority I do these things.  The baptism of John -- was it from heaven or from men?  Answer Me."  And they reasoned among themselves, saying, "If we say, 'From heaven,' He will say, 'Why then did you not believe him?'  But if we say, 'From men'" -- they feared the people, for all counted John to have been a prophet indeed.  So they answered and said to Jesus, "We do not know."  And Jesus answered and said to them, "Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things."   A note in my study bible says, "Answering the angry opposition's questions is often not wise.  Their question By what authority are You doing these things? is logical, for Jesus' acts are messianic.  And there is an answer:  the authority is that of Himself and His Father.  But, knowing they seek to entrap Him, He will not say so.  He leaves them with their question unanswered, and a confusion over His question.  Those who claim to have the answers are left admitting their ignorance."

Then He began to speak to them in parables:  "A man planted a vineyard and set a hedge around it, dug a place for the wine vat and built a tower.  And he leased it to vinedressers and went into a far country."  My study bible has several notations regarding this parable.  Here, it tells us:  "In this parable, the vineyard is Israel, the vinedressers are the Jewish leaders.  It is plainly told against the chief priests, the elders and the scribes -- and in the presence of the multitude."   Jesus, through the cleansing of the temple (in yesterday's reading), initiated confrontation in His final appearance in the flesh here in Jerusalem, initiating Holy Week.  As we can see from my study bible's note on Jesus' refusal to answer their question, it is on His terms.  Here He uses His oratory skills to further His position, before everybody.

"Now at vintage-time he sent a servant to the vinedressers, that he might receive some of the fruit of the vineyard from the vinedressers."  My study bible points out that in the Eastern (Orthodox) Church, the services of Holy Week stress the theme of fruit-bearing (again, see yesterday's reading and the symbolism of the fig tree).  It says, "Jesus has recently focused on fruit-bearing in the fig tree incident.  John reports more conversation of Jesus at this time on fruit-bearing (John 15:1-8) -- the vine and the branches.  The bearing of fruit is the mark of vital spiritual life."

 "And they took him and beat him and sent him away empty-handed.  Again he sent them another servant, and at him they threw stones, wounded him in the head, and sent him away shamefully treated.  And again he sent another, and him they killed; and many others, beating some and killing some.  Therefore still having one son, his beloved, he also sent him to them last, saying, 'They will respect my son.'  But those vinedressers said among themselves, 'This is the heir.  Come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.'  So they took him and killed him and cast him out of the vineyard.  Therefore what will the owner of the vineyard do?  He will come and destroy the vinedressers, and give the vineyard to others.  Have you not even read this Scripture:  'The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone.  This was the LORD's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes'?"  And they sought to lay hands on Him, but feared the multitude, for they knew He had spoken the parable against them.  So they left Him and went away.    A note here tells us:  "With this parable, Jesus totally discredits the religious leaders of Israel and establishes Himself as Messiah.  The religious leaders plainly understand Jesus' criticism and would have Him arrested, but they feared the multitude and a possible insurrection.  The leaders in Jerusalem were often viewed by the people as collaborators with the Romans, seeking to maintain their positions.  Therefore the people tended to favor popular charismatic figures such as Jesus."

Let's focus on what it means to be spiritually fruit-bearing, because it does have such a strong importance here.  Against the backdrop of Jesus' final entry into Jerusalem (John's Gospel suggests several visits to Jerusalem during religious festivals throughout His ministry), there looms a strong suggestion of judgment, and fruit-bearing is directly related to that, especially as we can see in this parable.  God's patience is represented by the repeated attempts of the vineyard owner to collect his due, by sending servant after servant, all of whom are "shamefully treated," and then finally his son.  The vinedressers have a lease -- not all of the harvest or vintage goes to the owner, only a just portion.  The vinedressers are free to share in those fruits themselves as part of the lease agreement here.  So, it's a question of sheer greed or selfishness that plays the role here in the abusive and abhorrent treatment of the servants of the owner.  It's the idea of entitlement and an unwillingness to acknowledge what is truly just here that is at work.  The vinedressers refuse to recognize the right of the owner, and they wish to take everything for themselves.  So much so, that they are willing to engage in violence and murder to prevent the owner's just due from being taken away.  In the parable, we can see the perspective of the owner:  not only patient, but repeatedly trusting, and trusting also in the "natural" respect the vinedressers should have for his son.  But greed and a kind of entitlement take over again in the final scenario.  Not only do they murder the son, but they do so in the belief that this is the way that they can get their hands on the whole property, and make it their own, when it is no such thing.  Following Jesus' parable, then, we can assume a few things about bearing spiritual fruit.  It comes first with a healthy respect for the "owner" of this world, this place we inhabit and in whose fruitfulness we share.  When we deny that, we begin to go upon the wrong path.  We leave a sense of gratitude about life and drift into a place where we're not just entitled to share in the harvest, but to own and control and exploit the whole thing.  An entire sense of right and wrong begins to wear away, to the point where it's greed and selfishness that we serve, so that "anything goes" as long as something is in the way of that goal.  Jesus tells the parable against the religious leadership, who feel they own this temple, they are the sole authorities, they have control.  But we can also see the analogy of a skewed sense of right and wrong as it applies to human selfish behavior all around us.  You don't really need a degree in the history of this world to understand what you can see and observe with your own eyes, and experience all around you.  But because this parable is about the religious leadership, it puts us into a place where really, "anything goes," because our faith in God and our worship is really supposed to be all about this kind of fruit-bearing, this sharing in the vineyard of the God who owns it, and we are only stewards.  Spiritual fruits also belong to everybody, and a harvest of this type is not made for certain individuals to have or control, but is freely given to all -- to all who would share in "ownership" or inheritance as children by adoption.  This is the way Christ taught and lived His ministry, the way we've been handed the Gospels as fruits of that ministry, of the Father who sent the Son.  And the Spirit, we know, is everywhere.  Christ is on a mission, as Son of this Owner, and His mission is to free us all to receive the goodness of the fruits, and to produce fruits ourselves as we are taught by Him.  This image of freedom and liberation is contrasted with the need for total control by the vinedressers in the parable.  And it's a key psychological insight to what it is to truly bear fruit.  We don't have to look to this story of what happened 2,000 years ago to know that this parable applies today to this world, and here and now.  When we catch ourselves feeling ownership of spiritual truth, we have to remember Who the real owner is.  Everything goes back to this first "right-relatedness" which is the root of righteousness.  When we forget where we are in this cosmic scheme of things, we don't really stand a chance of bearing the kind of fruits He asks for.  We forget all about the kind of life He calls us to.  So, we go back again, in today's reading, to the fruits of the Spirit as reported by St. Paul:  "The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law" (Galatians 5:22-23).   When we forget who the real Owner is, we lose our goal of bearing such fruit.  We're free to be given over to the things that enslave the world and bind us in the life of the one who would be "the ruler of this world."  Let us remember that in Mark's Gospel, Jesus comes as Liberator, the One who will give His life as a ransom for many.  We could set this parable anywhere, anytime, any place.  But let us remember most of all what we who claim to worship Him are called to bear, and what we are to stay away from.  Jesus confronts the religious authorities here in Jerusalem on this basis, after cleansing the temple in yesterday's reading.  Are we ready for the owner's return?  How do we really recognize His authority?